Db started by fixing the ski bag problem, now its 300-part aluminium suitcase shows how far the brand has come

There is a moment in my conversation with Db co-founder Truls Brataas when he compares materials to people, which is not necessarily where I expect a discussion about aluminium suitcases to end up.

However, as it turns out, it neatly explains the thinking behind one of the most ambitious products the company has made. "All materials are a bit like personalities," he tells me. "Polycarbonate and aluminium, they're good at different stuff, like people."

This idea sits at the heart of the brand's aluminium suitcase collection. Db didn't want to treat the material as a more expensive replacement for polycarbonate or enter a premium luggage market already populated by several established names.

Instead, it spent around three years trying to understand what aluminium could do, where it created problems, and how Db could build a suitcase around those characteristics.

The result contains more than 300 custom components, uses an unusual rivetless construction and, according to Brataas, represents something much bigger than another luggage launch. "It really felt like a natural evolution and an accumulation of everything that we learned over years."

From ski bags to aluminium

Db is still closely associated with the ski bags that helped establish the brand, but its move into conventional luggage stretches back to 2016, when the company launched its Aviator carry-on.

"The reason we made that was that we thought that market was ready for some disruption," Brataas says. "It was ready for someone to come in and look at that category a bit differently."

Db continued learning from those early products before making a much bigger commitment with the Ramverk Pro range, which Brataas says marked the point where the company put far more engineering resources behind conventional luggage.

Aluminium was the next challenge, but much of the thinking behind it came directly from Db's experience designing for specialist travellers. "We've been working with very dedicated travellers for more than a decade from all these sports, and we learned a lot of stuff on how to develop very specific products for these needs," Brataas says.

"For us, it has been a mentality shift on not just designing for the design, but basically deeply understanding the product first before you start to make the solution."

Ditching the rivets

One of the clearest examples is repairability, because Db wanted to challenge riveted construction, something that is common across traditional aluminium luggage.

"We wanted to look into repairability because all the luggage that is out there, most of it has rivets, so it's really hard to do any kind of repair," Brataas explains. "We wanted to see if it's possible to make luggage with screws, like IKEA, where everything can be changed."

The idea sounds simple, but using screws without covering the exterior in visible fixings created a much bigger engineering problem. Db needed internal structures that each component could screw into while keeping the outside of the case clean.

"You need to start to make internal rails and stuff like that," Brataas says. "That was actually quite a big engineering challenge."

As he explained, the shell, the rivetless construction and the need to create a new slide system were some of the biggest technical hurdles of the project. "You sit there with basically an Allen key and Torx and you dismount the entire thing with just screws."

More than 300 custom components

Building Alu this way also meant Db could not simply take a collection of standard luggage parts and assemble them around an aluminium shell. "I think what is interesting is that we didn't go for any components that are off the shelf," Brataas says. "Everything that we made – except the wheels – is made by us."

Even the trolley handle was treated as part of the wider engineering project rather than a generic component, with Db creating its own profile so that it fitted neatly into the edge frame.

Brataas says the company could have taken a much quicker route using existing OEM hardware, but doing so would have gone against its usual approach. "We won't go with off-the-shelf components. We've never done it that way in this company. We always try to do original work."

That decision stretched development to around three years and meant the manufacturing process had to evolve alongside the suitcase itself. Db was trying to build something using techniques that were not already standard on existing aluminium luggage production lines.

When I ask what the team ultimately had to compromise on, Brataas is fairly unequivocal. "We didn't really do any compromises on this thing, quite honestly. We went all the way out on this one."

Aluminium has a personality of its own

Part of the difficulty came from aluminium itself, which Brataas describes as one of the toughest materials to engineer into luggage. "It is the hardest material to work with when it comes to luggage from an engineering point of view, but it also is the pinnacle challenge."

He describes aluminium as relatively soft, highly formable, and naturally lustrous, which means the way the case ages has to be considered during the design process. "It will get a patina over time, but you need to take that into the design process."

Protection was another early concern, particularly because aluminium's softness meant Db wanted to create a case that was protected across the entire structure rather than simply reinforced around the corners.

"One of the cons is that aluminium is quite soft," he says. "So how can you make luggage which has protection not only on the edges of the bag, but through the entire thing?"

Those functional demands then influenced the final shape of the suitcase. "What we do is we start with a very industrial design methodology," Brataas says. "Once you understand and start to create a form, then form will follow the function."

Red Bull meets Acne Studios

That balance between technical performance and visual appeal has been part of Db's identity from the beginning, even though adventure sports remain the most obvious reference point for many people who know the company.

Brataas sums up the original ambition using an unlikely pairing. "Our North Star in the beginning was what happens if you take Red Bull, the pinnacle of extreme sport and outdoor, and mix that with Acne Studios, the Swedish fashion brand, which is the pinnacle of Scandinavian design aesthetic, and you merge that into one thing."

"We are travellers; we do all these sports. However, we want to look good when we do it."

For much of Db's history, that meant bringing lifestyle and fashion influences into outdoor equipment, but Brataas says the direction is increasingly reversing. "What you're seeing more often is we take the outdoor into the lifestyle side."

Alu is perhaps the clearest example yet, taking knowledge accumulated through skiing, surfing, photography, and other demanding travel niches and applying it to a suitcase intended for a much broader group of people.

"We use those high niches to learn how to bring that into other segments because these are the most demanding consumers you will find," Brataas says. "If we manage to make products for them, there's a lot of learning that we can bring into the wider lifestyle as well."

A peek into Db's future

That shift raises an obvious question about what Db now wants to be, because a company producing ski bags, camera backpacks, aluminium luggage and fashion-led collaborations is increasingly difficult to put into one category.

Brataas seems perfectly happy with that. "We are one of the few brands that I know that are category independent," he says. "We can work with so many different verticals, and it's natural for the brand."

Db's co-founder describes the company as a "lifestyle luggage brand", while positioning Alu as evidence of its increasing focus on the lifestyle side and its attempt to "take the outdoor into the lifestyle".

When I ask what he wants the legacy of Alu to be five years from now, Brataas makes it clear that he sees the collection as a statement about Db itself. "Aluminium is a symbol or a peek into the future of Db, and it symbolises the premium position that we have in the bag and luggage category, and it also shows our capability."

That may ultimately be more interesting than the aluminium shell or the 300-plus custom components, because Alu shows how far Db has travelled from solving one very specific problem around carrying skis.

The same obsession with demanding users and original product design remains, but the audience and ambition are becoming considerably broader.

You can shop the Ramverk Alu Collection at Db now.